There was one other thing that the Inn we’d ended up in was known for. The Badehaus Tavern and Inn was famous throughout Uln and much of the Black Woods for the attached Bathhouse.

I intended to spend a good chunk of the morning soaking away the after effects of the journey, the elixir, and drinking my own bodyweight in booze. The Gamer in me thought I should go out and explore, grind those skills up, make sure I was over-levelled for the journey to this Moonstone place.

The rest of me had decided that since I couldn’t go anywhere without my clothes I should have a proper soak instead.

Well that was the plan. I had maybe 10 minutes soaking in one of the huge half barrel baths before the cleaner helpfully showed up with my clothes. She was younger than I’d been expecting and carried herself the same way Agnes did. I wondered if she was also a Witch. Maybe Witches were just generally interested in hygiene and cleanliness. I didn’t ask because asking that sort of question struck me as an excellent way to get turned into a frog.

I asked the cleaner how much I owed her but she said that Jethro had already paid her with the pocket change from my leather jerkin.

She left and I was suddenly alone in my bathwater with my Gamer self and absolutely no valid reason not to get dressed and explore Uln.

#

Out on the street and the impression I’d got the night before - that Uln was a city like the ones back home - was reinforced by walking through it. It had the rhythm and flow of a city. The noise was right too. It had the layered cacophony of cities everywhere. The way sound floats down the side streets and drifts out of the buildings you pass. The snatches of conversation you hear from passing vehicles. The sound of someone, somewhere practising something loud.

It was a small city though. I could tell because it only had one centre. The market was right in the heart of the city and the Council building overlooked it. Jethro pointed out the various taverns we’d visited in our “epic” pub crawl and none of them were more than a five minute walk from the plaza that was currently filled up with market stalls.

Most of the buildings that I’d seen in the city had the same look as the buildings that I’d seen in the woods. They were larger and neater and looked more… on purpose, somehow, but they were built out of the same stuff.

There was more glass in the city but that just made sense. In the woods a window is open to let the heat out during the summer and shuttered to keep the warmth in during the winter. Letting light in is a bonus. If you need light to do a task you just take the task outside.

In the city people need to let the light in. They can’t just take the task outside because outside is full of strangers. You need glass in your windows to keep the strangers out at night, just like you need locks on your doors.

The city buildings all had slate or tile roofs. Thatch and shingle would be harder to get in a city and probably too much of a fire risk where the buildings all huddled so close together.

In the centre of the city the buildings were much grander. Most of them were stone or brick and there were a couple of tall spindly towers that had to have been built by magic. One of them looked like it was being kept up by magic. It leant out over the street in a way that couldn’t possibly be safe. I suspected that it was all an illusion. It would surely be easier to conceal a couple of buttresses than to actually hold the building up.

#

The longer I spent in the Market the more anxious I became. It came on so slowly that at first I barely noticed it. Jethro and I wandered between the stalls, taking in the sights and the smells, getting used to being around so many other people. At first it was nice to see the market stalls because they reminded me of home. I had some interest in the fruits and vegetables, just out of curiosity, but I had no desire to buy any of them because I was expecting to get my meals in the Tavern until we had to leave on the next stage of our journey.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Then we got to the more interesting stalls and I began to feel a weird pressure. There were fine fabrics, jewellery, and fancy things that I wanted in an abstract sort of way but didn’t really need, or even have the space for.

We turned a corner in the tight maze of the market and found ourselves on a row of stalls selling practical, outdoorsy kinds of goods. One might even say adventuring gear. On the very first stall I saw a backpack, similar to the one that Jethro used but lighter weight. They had all kinds of bags and belts and portable storage. I could not afford any of it.

We moved on. I tried not to get too interested in any of the stalls but a little farther on one grabbed my attention and would not let go. It was climbing gear. There were harnesses, ropes, and a magical grapple-hook shooting gauntlet that was inside a glass case with a little card on it that said, Price available upon request. As my old Dad used to say, “If you have to ask then you can’t afford it.”

By the time we got to the end of the row, where a stall selling durable soft leather boots (including boots for digitigrade legs) sat opposite one selling whittling tools far better than anything I could make, I’d had enough and I said so.

“I need to get out of here. I’m too broke for this bullshit.”

I left the market with Jethro hot on my heels and found myself faced with the large glass window of a shop clearly aimed at the elite of Uln. The window was full of ornate crystal flasks holding elixirs, potions and infusions. The light glinting off the crystal was more than I could afford, never mind the glowing liquids inside.

I turned away from that and walked down a shady side street. I hadn’t felt poor in the woods. Everything I needed I could either make, find or borrow. If I needed something beyond that I could pay for it with the things that I could make or find. The only person who had any wealth was Agnes, with her huge fancy tent and her snazzy crystal ball. It was hard to begrudge that wealth to someone who got up before everyone else to haul around barrels of water.

I looked up at the buildings surrounding me. It was a warm day and many of them had open windows and sky-lights. I had a high stealth stat and two levels each of climbing and parkour. These houses were full of containers and if I opened enough of them I’d be sure to find the money I needed.

Jethro derailed my train of thought by putting a hand on my shoulder, “This is why Agnes didn’t want you to come to the city until you had some levels under your belt.”

“What?” I said, wondering if Jethro had some hidden mind-reading skill.

“People say that Outlanders tend to get a bit… overwhelmed in cities and they end up chasing coin for a while. They usually get over it but it affects which skills they level. Agnes looked up the Scavenger career path. Most of the foundation skills are rural. It’s more flexible later on but foraging in a city is just stealing stuff out of people’s gardens. Agnes said if you went straight to a city you’d focus on the skills that would make money in the short term and it would cripple your career build.”

“Overwhelmed, huh?” I said. It sounded like a euphemism. I thought about every game I’d ever played where you could just walk into NPC houses and search through their belongings. I thought I could guess what behaviour being ‘overwhelmed’ had led to.

“We should get some food,” said Jethro. “That’ll take your mind off things.”

“Can we afford lunch?” I said, searching through my pockets for my few remaining silver coins.

“There’s a couple of stalls that cater to the likes of us,” he said.

“Great,” I dropped my few coins into his hand. “You get the food. I’m going to level a couple of skills while avoiding temptation and distraction. I’ll see you outside the Council building."

Before he could argue I was shinning up the iron drainpipe down the side of one of the tall stone buildings that ringed the main town square. Now that I knew that it was a kind of trap I had no intention of going inside any of these ornate buildings unless I was invited, but the outsides of them would be perfect for my climbing practice. I would run on their rooftops like an obstacle course and I wouldn’t have to keep looking at things that I couldn’t afford and could probably do without. At least until I worked out how to make them for myself.